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“Imperfect Foods delivers groceries on a mission. Shop produce, groceries, and snacks up to 30% less than grocery store prices.”

I’ve been using Imperfect Foods for almost a year now and it’s about time that I decided to review how I felt about things. I started using it last March because I was looking for an easier way to get groceries during covid. The company reviews boasted of cheaper prices, easier process, and being incredibly environmentally friendly. I am going to go over a few of my own key takeaways: delivery, customer service, products, ease of use, and sustainability. At the end I give a link to get $10 off your first purchase 🙂

DELIVERY:

Okay, this is truly the only downside for me… Imperfect Foods packages the food in the boxes pictured above. My food is always cold upon arrival and recently i’ve noticed that they have added handles to the boxes to make them easier to carry. All of the packing materials are recyclable which is great as well! There have been a few times that I’ve noticed that my items have broken because of poor packaging. The company doesn’t use additional materials to package glass items or cartons. One time I had an almond milk carton ruin some of my vegetables because it broke all over the box 🙁 BUT, I don’t necessarily believe this is all on Imperfect Foods. I truly think it’s on FedEx because I get there boxes every other week and 9/10 times the box is flipped on its side when the box clearly states “this side up”. I also had them deliver it to the wrong house before, and that is definitely the shipping company’s fault and not Imperfect Foods. Delivery in my area just jumped from $5.99 to $8.99 which was annoying but not heartbreaking.

CUSTOMER SERVICE:

Going off of my delivery issues, I have had an incredible experience with Imperfect Foods giving me refunds for broken/ruined items. I would email them and tell them what was wrong and they would credit an amount to my account. Sometimes I added pictures, but other times they didn’t ask for any. The box that was delivered to the wrong house was fully refunded to me since I didn’t receive any of the items. I told them it was missing and they said to wait a day and if it wasn’t there that they would refund the full amount. They were also very kind and super responsive! So for the delivery being my biggest qualm with the process, their Customer Service really makes up for it.

PRODUCTS

The products that Imperfect Foods has come from a variety of different places and for a variety of reasons. Typically you can see why the foods are being sold on the site which can be because of the shape, size, miscoding, or sometimes rebranding. Much of the produce is sold because it may not have been accepted by grocery stores for whatever reason or could be surplus produce from a farm. I like that I can see why the products are being sold on there! The variety of products is incredible and everything I’ve gotten has been good quality. I will say that some of the products I can tell will be reaching their expiration soon (mostly the fruits/veggies) and I just try to use them sooner. My personal favorite are the beverage choices available.

EASE OF USE:

I really love the ease of use for Imperfect Foods. I get an email every week that reminds me that it’s time to shop with Imperfect and so I pick out my groceries and browse on Monday/Tuesday of every week. I can easily skip weeks, look at my information, and make notes on what foods I want in every order or the ones I don’t ever want to order (which for me is brussel sprouts haha). It’s truly an easy site to use on your phone or on your computer.

SUSTAINABILITY:

This is the point that I haven’t quite figured out how I feel about yet. The site provides statistics of how environmentally friendly I have been through my purchases. This made me feel really good about my purchases until I read a little bit more about the business structure in some articles. There was nothing that stood out to me to make me think businesses like these are BAD but it made me think more critically about how much am I actually doing to reduce food waste… This is something I’d encourage you to look into more if you are interested, but all in all I believe Imperfect Foods really is trying to reduce food waste and helping smaller farms around the US.

All in all, I have really enjoyed using Imperfect Foods and I believe that we have saved money and prevented food waste through our orders. I wish that our deliveries were perfect all the time, but the company certainly makes up for this in many other areas. I would certainly recommend using Imperfect Foods! Here’s a link to get $10 off your first purchase: http://imprfct.us/v/caroline_2410

Happy Shopping! XOXO, Caro